After finishing his last meal, [ Howling Pothos ] seemed to have come to terms with it.
He looked at the two holes in the Living Wood trunk that served as eyes:
"Do you want it alive or dead?"
If I'm going to live, I might still have a glimmer of Vitality; if I'm going to die, I might as well fight it out.
But Living Wood's answer once again surprised him:
"I don't want any of it. Just finish eating and leave quickly, don't bother me here."
Am I not going to move? Am I unable to move?
[ Howling Pothos ] grumbled inwardly, but said aloud:
"But you've stuck to me..."
"You came over here on your own."
[ Howling Pothos ] was speechless. Thinking about it carefully, it was indeed true, but who would have thought such a thing could happen?
However, this Living Wood seems to be an intelligent monster, and it doesn't seem to be very aggressive, so perhaps I could try to communicate with it?
"Are you a tree or... a person?"
The Living Wood drooped its branches again, looking at the [ Howling Pothos ]:
"Now it's a tree, but it used to be a person."
Seeing the other person's expression, which suggested they wanted to press for more information, Living Wood continued:
"You'd better leave quickly, my kind don't have such a good temper, they'll kill you on sight."
"I've seen quite a few like you lately, but only one survived; the rest have all been killed."
Someone like me? Does this refer to players?
[ Howling Pothos ] seemed lost in thought, as she forcefully pulled herself out of the resin while continuing to ask:
Do you know who we are?
"Thugs, rebels, bandits... that's what they called them anyway, a bunch of guys who came from outside the city to cause trouble."
In a sense, that's true, but as the saying goes, where you sit determines where you look, and [ Howling Pothos ] doesn't intend to admit it.
"Then why don't you hunt us like your companions?"
The Living Wood monster thought for a moment and said:
"I want to protect my family from harm by you and my kind."
[ Howling Pothos ] then noticed that when the Living Wood wasn't looking at it, it was always staring at a house by the roadside.
The lights in the houses were dim, but it was still clear that people lived there.
[ Howling Pothos ] felt filled with doubt at that moment, and after thinking for a moment, he asked:
"Could you protect my body? I might need to rest for a few hours."
He's going back to the real world to catch up on his studies.
"Well, it's not impossible."
Living Wood replied:
"As long as you don't get too close to my family, I can't really control what you do. But you must be back before dawn; we're restricted to nighttime activities by the rules."
"Good."
Upon hearing this, [ Howling Pothos ] found a secluded corner, tilted her head, and logged off.
He is currently located in Fir City, without a map or signal, and is out of contact with the Root Network.
But once offline, he can log in to the official forum of the World of Disorder through the internet in the real world.
With a goal in mind, [ Howling Pothos ] quickly entered the keywords " Fir City ", "Monster", and " Living Wood ", and a large number of fresh posts instantly appeared below the search bar.
After reading through it at lightning speed, [ Howling Pothos ] even took simple notes to improve efficiency. After catching up on the information, he roughly understood the current situation.
Based on the joint submissions of " How to Escape from Living Wood " by [ Dark Archmage ] and [ Pond Fish and Old Abyss ], and " The Fir City Dungeon Chronicle " currently being serialized by [ Clear Soup Master ], these Living Wood should possess both human and plant attributes, and the degree of fusion is even higher than that of these plant-like beings created by Ed.
According to [ Clear Soup Master ]'s description, the monsters in the dungeon exist in humanoid or humanoid form. Most of them are mentally unstable and their moods are unpredictable. Only a small number can communicate with him in a simple way.
Every night after the dungeon opens, these humanoid creatures rush out and begin sweeping through Fir City.
This connects to the accounts of [ Dark Archmage ] and [ Pond Fish and Old Abyss ]: Starting from the second night, a group of living wooden figures suddenly appeared in Fir City at night. They not only hunted down players who were active at night, but also killed rats on the roadside and locals who violated the curfew, behaving like pure bloodthirsty monsters.
However, there is one exception: the monsters always pretend not to see houses with their doors and windows tightly closed. So, the best way to get through the night in Fir City safely is to forcibly stay with a lucky family, lock the door, and don't forget to pay for the lodging.
Several days passed, and [ Clear Soup Master ] felt that he was also developing in this Aberration direction. He said that if he really couldn't hold on, he would give up this body and choose to be resurrected, but he did not rule out the possibility that his body would still become a monster.
After logging back in, [ Howling Pothos ] looked at the Living Wood that was silently protecting its family:
"So you're from Fir City's prison?"
Living Wood paused for a moment upon hearing this, and looked at him:
How come you know everything after just one night's sleep?
"Don't worry about that for now..."
[ Howling Pothos ] didn't intend to explain, only feeling that the Living Wood in front of it might be one of the monsters that [ Clear Soup Master ] had mentioned that could communicate.
He then asked:
"Has a new inmate been recently arrested in your cell? He's my fellow inmate, his name is [ Clear Soup Master ], have you heard of him?"
Living Wood thought for a moment and said:
"I've heard of it, but our prison is quite far away; he wasn't talking to me at the time."
"Are there any other reasonable wooden people like you?"
"There were a few, but they all went insane after gaining their freedom, and could only communicate in prison."
Or is he a special individual?
[ Howling Pothos ] frowned almost imperceptibly, guessing that according to the rules of this world, this tree-man should have had a stronger will than normal people before the Aberration.
He thought for a moment and said:
"You became like this because you were subjected to cruel experiments, right?"
The tree-man looked at him and nodded silently.
"I've seen many experimental subjects like you, most of whom are no older than fifteen. Every town in the entire Aduolin Province has laboratories and prisons like that, where they're doing terrible things to you."
[ Howling Pothos ] said seriously:
"That's why we rebel against the Tree Worship Church, establish a new order to save you all. This is who we are, this is the creed that the 'rebels' they call us uphold."
"We are just the advance team, infiltrating Fir City through various means to gather intelligence. Soon, this city will be saved by us."